Inspiration 3670 Dual Monitors

You are using integrated Intel graphics from cpu.  For more high res video ports you can add a discrete graphics card. Them most basic one recommended by Dell is 

per spec.

Re: usb to hdmi adapter lag.  Did you use it on USB 3 port (blue)?  Do not use slower usb 2.0 port.  You can try another vendor of adapter if you feel the first one is possibly suboptimal but no promise lag issue is solved.

A "cheap" (as you called it) USB3>HDMI dongle might be part of the problem.

To add to what was already said:

1. The four USB ports on rear of this PC are USB2, so you have to connect the dongle to a USB3.1 port on front of PC.
   
   
2. Did this dongle support your version of Windows?
   
   
3. Did it require its own driver and was it installed?
   
   
4. Did it support the "native" (aka: "recommended" or "optimum") resolution of that monitor?
   
   
5. How much RAM is installed in this system?

If you can please tell us all of the display port options from the monitor that is having trouble please.

1. Make sure your graphics card can handle multiple monitors and if so configured properly.

2. make sure if you have windows 10 it is fully up to date including graphic drivers.

3. make sure your graphics card can handle multiple monitors and is configured properly through graphic drivers.

4. go to windows display settings and go down to display resolution make sure it is on the highest resolution which is typically named recommended. Please tell me what that resolution is on the monitor with trouble.

They have VGA to HDMI adapters. The one I have is connected to a dell power edge U1 R610 server. the adapter came with a USB power wire as you will possibly need some power to your adapter as well update the drivers for it. I really hope any of this information helps as it is a lot to take in. please let me know how it goes. Thanks. 

5.  Some adapters come with software or drivers for updates. If these are not up to date it can cause issues like you are discussing.

I fully agree with everything you have said. I currently go to school for IT and was taught that 3.0 and 3.1 are simply generations based on speed ratings. That meaning that 3.0 and 3.1 are cross compatible with earlier versions like 2.0? Am I not correct on this? I am wondering for my sake lol

@Bryan-r610  It's not a question of USB3.0 vs USB3.1. The question is whether @inspirationnn3670 plugged the USB3>HDMI dongle into a USB2 port or into a USB3.1 port on the PC.

Transfer speed of USB2.0 is up to 480 megabits/s max, while the transfer speed of USB3.0 is up to 5 Gbit/s, max. So USB3.0 is about 10x faster than the USB2.0. But, a USB3>HDMI dongle plugged into a USB2 port can't transfer data faster than the USB2.0 speed max.

In theory USB3.1 can reach 10 Gbits/s. So a USB3.1>HDMI dongle plugged into a USB3.1 port on PC may transfer data ~2x faster than a USB3.0>HDMI dongle plugged into the same port on this PC.  Faster USB speed should mean less video lagging and better overall performance.

Also keep in mind the PC in question only has onboard Intel UHD Graphics, without any add-in video card. So that limits the video output port options to HDMI and VGA. And since onboard Intel UHD Graphics are actually on the CPU chip, they can hog processing time and system RAM too, especially if this PC has a Core i3 CPU, all of which can reduce performance. 

So maximizing USB transfer speed will help performance of the 2nd monitor, but it might also take an increase in RAM, in addition to a faster USB>HDMI dongle, or installing an add-in video card, for best results...

Good luck with your studies!

Hi Bryan, thanks for the reply!

My drivers are up to date. As RoHe mentioned, my graphics card only support 1x HDMI and 1x VGA monitors. After thinking about it, I don't plan on purchasing an additional graphics card. I will simply wait until I upgrade my PC within a year or two and go from there!

The resolution settings when using the VGA are already set to max, as you suggested.

I've plugged the HDMI -> USB into the front port as SoHe mentioned. So I'm back to the higher quality 2nd monitor with a bit of lag. I don't remember exactly how bad the lag was originally, but it feels a bit less laggy now that I have it plugged into the front port (USB 3.0 I think?) instead of the back. I might have to stick with this for now. Thank you for the help!

Yes the "USB 3.0 to HDMI Adapter" I'm currently using is very cheap. $12 on Amazon I believe; there isn't even a brand name for it. 

I've set it back up and plugged it into the front port this time. There now seems to be a little less lag than before! Although there is still some. If I were to purchase a higher quality Dongle, could that fix my problem and make it so there's no lag? If so, I might look into that.

Yes this adapter supports my version of windows and required it's own driver (installed it). My PC has 12GB RAM.

Is there a difference between a dongle and an adapter? Mine is labeled as an adapter.

However, I thought about it, and I don't plan on upgrading graphics card at this time. I will simply upgrade my PC some time over the next year or two. Thank you!

one last thing to try for performance on your monitor.

go to your search bar for windows 10 and type in adjust the appearance and performance of windows, this can also be found in the control panel. click on the box to take you there, once there you will see 4 bubbles with options, select adjust for best performance and go down to smooth edges of screen fonts and make sure to check that box, hit apply and ok then see if this helps.

I am glad you were able to find this information out! Right now unfortunately is a horrible time to buy electronics in general especially graphics cards as they are almost 4 times more than they are worth. Using the 3.0 to 3.1 USB on the front is smart as it will be faster speeds based on the USB gen meaning 3.0 is faster than 2.0. To take away lag it's best to go down in resolution a little sometimes. This will obviously look worse but yet make it more smooth as this will take less strain off your graphics card. Also if you can monitor heat from inside your system as hotter components often give lots of trouble. make sure components are clean and up to par. This is pretty much all the advice i can give, I hope this helps anyone with similar problems.

@inspirationnn3670  - The front ports on your PC are USB3.1 so a USB3.1>HDMI video dongle (same thing as "adapter") might eek out a little better performance than the USB3.0 dongle you have now...

Which CPU do you have? That makes a difference because an i3 is much slower than an i5 or i7, and since the CPU is handling video for both monitors, that will slow things down and hurt performance.

You don't want to set resolution to maximum for that second monitor. You want to set it to the recommended resolution for that specific monitor, which may be less than its max resolution.

And one more thought...If the two monitors aren't identical, but since both have HDMI ports, try switching them around. Connect the "second" monitor to the onboard Intel HDMI port on the PC, and connect the other monitor to the USB>HDMI dongle via a front USB port. See if that performs any better, again setting resolution for each monitor to its recommended setting.